1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer networks. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for marking content during distribution of the content to a client, so that markings on the content facilitate identification of the client.
2. Related Art
The explosive growth of the Internet has led to the proliferation of content and of software that facilitates the sharing of content. Most published content is presently available to the public in electronic form. This, coupled with the fact that high capacity digital storage media, such as CD-ROMs, are cheap enough that they are available to the majority of the general public, has sparked widespread sharing and duplication of content that is virtually identical in quality to the source.
While sharing of content, in many cases, is beneficial to the society in general and should be encouraged, a growing piece of this trend is focused on piracy and the unlawful duplication of content. The future holds even more appeal to those in the illegal duplication and distribution business. Movies are starting to be filmed and produced entirely on digital mediums. When a theater receives a digital copy of a movie from the film studio, they are also receiving a perfect master from which near-perfect copies of the movie can be made.
Many safeguards have been put into place to prevent the illegal copying of protected content. While many of these safeguards work well when they are distributed, they are quickly defeated by other individuals, many of whom view the new safeguards as a challenge that they must break. Current safeguards being placed on distributed content not only discourage the illegal duplication of the content, but they are starting to disallow operations that a purchaser of the content has the legal right to perform. For instance, in their continual quest to prevent the duplication of music CDs purchased from legitimate sources, the recording industry has placed anti-duplication measures on the CDs that are so restrictive, they do not allow the purchaser to copy the songs to his or her MP3 player, or to even play the music CD in a drive that is connected to a PC.
What is needed, in this case, is a method and apparatus that discourages the illegal copying of content while not preventing the consumer from making legal copies of the content.